Devoted
by Windbreak
Summary: Chrom and the five people he loved. - various pairings, mostly family.


_Devoted_

...

**i. Emmeryn**

He was eternally grateful to his older sister for everything she had ever done for him. She had fed him, clothed him, and managed to put up with him for all those long years, and he couldn't thank her enough. Sometimes, he wished he could be more like Emmeryn: patient, kind, always ready to make peace. Chrom wasn't like that. As soon as he got angry, he couldn't control his temper and always ended up hurting someone because of it.

But her peaceful approach ended up being her own downfall. This thought rushed through Chrom's mind as he watched in horror as Emm fell gracefully through the air, the ground rushing closer and closer with every passing second.

She had always been willing to sacrifice her needs for his own, and now she was even ready to take her own life to save his.

"Emmeryn!"

He dropped to his knees in front of her fallen figure, tears streaming down his face. His beloved sister's eyes were closed and there was a serene smile on her lips, and Chrom thought that she would always be beautiful, even in death.

...

**ii. Lissa**

She was annoying, to put it mildly. To call her a pest didn't even do justice to it. She was always flouncing around camp putting frogs under people's bedsheets or pulling other completely immature pranks. But above all, she was his sister, and Chrom tried to love her twice as much now to make up for the absence of Emmeryn.

Usually, this could be hard to do, such as when Lissa was acting like a brat and setting traps all over camp so he could accidentally walk into one of them and totally humiliate himself in front of everyone in the whole army. But other times it wasn't as difficult as he had thought.

Sometimes, he could hear her screaming in the middle of the night from the nightmares she had, about Emmeryn, about their parents, even about him. She would thrash around wildly in bed and cry out in her sleep, mostly about Chrom dying in battle and leaving her utterly alone. Even though he wanted to savor the precious amount of sleep he had, he couldn't leave his younger sister to be haunted like she was. So every time Lissa woke up screaming, he would enter her tent and try to comfort her as best as he could.

"Oh, Chrom, in my dream you were dead!" She burst into fresh tears as soon as she saw him by her side, and he let her cry into his shoulder.

"I'm here for you, Lissa," he assured her. "You're going to be all right."

His sister hiccupped. "Y-yeah. Just...promise not to ever leave me, okay?"

"I won't. Promise."

He rubbed slow, soothing circles on her hand with his thumb, just like Emm used to do when he couldn't sleep as a little kid. Soon her soft breathing filled the tent once more, and he always thought of falling asleep himself.

Lissa looked peaceful and serene while she slept, so different from her awakened self that Chrom couldn't help laughing. But it was during these times that he knew, without a doubt, that he truly loved his younger sister.

...

**iii. Robin**

Okay, so maybe he might have accidentally-on-purpose walked in on her when she was in the bath. But she did the same to him, so Chrom figured it was even. He didn't know if she did it deliberately, but he wouldn't put it past her. She was a clever one, that Robin. She could come up with the most far-fetched plans, the most quixotic ideas, and they would somehow work because she was a true genius.

That's why he loved her.

He sighed heavily and stared down at the ring in his hand, trying to work up the courage to propose to her. He needed to find a time when they wouldn't be interrupted by Lissa doing something stupid again or Frederick wanting to know what his orders were.

"Chrom?"

Shoot, it was Robin. Great timing. He hastily jumped up and tried to hide the ring, but right when he was trying to shove it in his pocket, he realized he didn't have pockets. Which meant he was screwed.

_Gods, save me._

Robin's eyes narrowed as she watched the ring clatter to the ground. "A ring?" Her curiosity was aroused, and that was a bad thing. When she wanted to know something, she always found out.

"N-no! I mean, yes, it's a ring, obviously, b-but..." This was the worst time to be tongue-tied. He managed to sputter out a few words that didn't even remotely form a complete sentence before he resolved to stop talking altogether. He wondered what his face looked like, then decided he didn't want to know. It was probably as red as Sully's hair.

_Chrom, you're a complete and total idiot._

He watched as Robin furrowed her brow carefully, as she always did when she was thinking of a battle strategy. "You...were going to propose to someone? Who is it?"

Clearing his throat, Chrom picked up the ring and knelt on one knee before her. He had to save his dignity before it was too late. "Actually," he said with a sheepish smile, "I was going to propose to you. I can't think of anyone I would rather spend my life with, and besides, we are practically two halves of one whole, aren't we? Soo... Robin, will you marry me?"

To his utter surprise, Robin burst out laughing and threw her arms around him. "Chrom, you're such an idiot! I can't believe you messed up _this_, of all things—but, I love you for it anyway."

"So is that a yes?" He was frozen and didn't think he could move until she confirmed. She giggled and kissed him.

"Of course, you dummy! Yes!"

...

**iv. Lucina**

To be honest, he wasn't completely sure how to be a father. His own father had died before he could even remember and he grew up cared for by Emmeryn and several palace servants. Chrom had no idea what a real father was supposed to be like, but somehow all his uncertainty washed away when he held the Lucina from the future in his arms for the first time.

"You deserved better from me than one sword."

He held his daughter close and stroked her hair as she wept into his shoulder, shuddering with every breath she drew. His arms tightened around her. He never wanted let her go for as long as he lived, never release her from safe inside his arms, but he knew he had to sooner or later. She was her own woman now, a princess who had made it her duty to save the world from its dark future, but for now Chrom was proud to call her his own daughter.

She was trembling, he could feel it. There were so many things he could say to her—he could whisper soothing promises and comforting words into her ear, but they would all be lies, every single one of them. He couldn't tell her everything was all right, because it wasn't.

Instead, he whispered, "We'll never be separated again. I'll be right beside you until we disappear from the ends of the earth," and knew he would do anything to keep this promise to her. He still didn't know if he was the image of a perfect father, but he hoped he could get there—someday.

...

**v. Morgan**

It was stage one again, and he was standing in front of a tactician who had lost all his memories. But this time, it was his son, and Chrom was desperate to get him to remember _something_, anything at all. After Morgan had been sent to the infirmary more than a few times for banging his head on a book to try and regain his memory, Chrom was unsure how to handle the situation, to say the least.

"I-I _tried_, Dad. I tried with everything I had, but... I don't think I can," Morgan admitted tearfully one evening, as they were sitting around the fireplace with the rest of the family. "What's wrong with me?" Lucina looked like she was about to cry herself, and Robin had her brow furrowed in thought again.

Chrom sighed. "There's nothing wrong with you, Morgan," he said, trying to reassure his son as best as he could. "I know you've been trying your hardest, but it's all right if you can't. As a family, we can make our own memories."

"That's what family is for, isn't it?" Robin smiled, and Chrom knew it was true. It wasn't as if everything would magically be okay again, but right now they were together as a family, and that was what mattered. Whatever was going to happen was in the future, but for now, he would just enjoy these peaceful days and keep them in his heart for as long as he existed on this earth.


End file.
